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Chinese want next KMT-CCP forum to be held in Taiwan

A senior Chinese official said yesterday that he would like to see the next Cross-Strait Economic, Trade and Cultural Forum between the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held in Taiwan.

Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), director of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, expressed the wish while he was seeing off former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) at the airport after the KMT and the CCP had completed their third cross-strait forum in Beijing.

Chen said that each time the two sides have prepared to hold the annual forum, there have been people in Taiwan who have heaped negative or abusive remarks on the meeting.

"Yet we have been going from strength to strength, and I would hope that the next forum can be held in Taiwan," he said.

Lien, who led a delegation of more than 100 senior KMT officials and local business leaders to Beijing, told reporters at the airport that the people of Taiwan "will welcome the achievements of the 2007 forum."

He urged the government in Taipei to "reap the forum's fruitful results" for the sake of Taiwan's people.

Some 500 participants attended the two-day forum and discussed issues including cooperation on education, sightseeing trips by Chinese tourists and direct cross-strait flights.

Among the new measures announced by Beijing during the forum was a decision to allow students from China to apply to study in Taiwan.
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